Patients Walk Miles Seeking Medical Care

It was a second busy day at the Wampar medical site in Papua New Guinea. Together, the HOPE volunteers and other Pacific Partnership 2011 medical professionals helped change lives with better health for nearly 600 people, despite the fact that public transportation wasn't running on Sunday. Many of the patients walked 10 or more miles to get a chance to see the multi-national medical team.

Project HOPE volunteer nurses, Thanh Dinh and Hanna Taylor greeted the patients at the registration table. As they were processing the patients, they were also learning more about TB, Dengue Fever and other various diseases prevalent among the local people.

“We learned a lot, and were able to quickly send each patient to the right doctor for examination and treatment,” says Taylor.

Another volunteer nurse, Bridget Binko, helped transport patients to the waiting areas once processed though registration.

HOPE volunteer, Dr. Lee Shoop worked with patients of all ages. “One of my patients was a little girl who had a pebble stuck in her ear drum,” he says. Not having any luck trying to remove the pebble, Dr. Shoop was able to get the assistance of an Army medical professional who was able to flush out the ear with saline solution to remove the pebble. “Sadly, the pebble was in her ear for too long and it destroyed the ear drum,” he said.

Later in the day, Dr. Shoop treated a women complaining of stomach pains.

"She had been losing weight, she looked like she was 70 but was only 40. She had a hernia, asthma, and with the weight lose, a possible case of worms too," Dr. Shoop said.

He was able to refer her to a local hospital for hernia surgery.

Project HOPE's volunteer pharmacist, Chuck Lester, was the last stop patients made before leaving the clinic. "Things ran really smoothly, in a nice timely manner,” Lester says. “People seemed to be happy."